This Farming Life - December

Castlefarm gears up for Christmas – the Farm Shop is open every day from 19th – 24th December, and Jenny Young explains how they then manage the workload to keep time needed on the farm to a minimum over the holiday.

At Castlefarm I am both a full time farmer and part time shopkeeper. Peter and I will be working on Christmas Day, all of Christmas week in fact. You cannot not milk the cows because it’s a holiday. However in early December we start a process of organising and planning so that during the holidays we just do the minimum on the farm.

We are now milking 50 cows and in mid-December we will dry off (stop milking) another 20 of our spring calvers. It takes just 30 minutes to milk 30 cows so this will mean a lot less time in the milking parlour.

Because the cows are housed indoors full time in winter, the straw and dung has built up in the sheds so this month our contractor came in to clean out the sheds. We also had a lorry load of cattle ration blown into our huge meal bin, to subsidise their silage diet. In this frosty weather all efforts have to be made to ensure water to the animals does not freeze up.

I am also busy in the farm shop taking turkey orders for Christmas dinners, delivering and selling delicious food hampers to customers for their friends and family and also putting together Irish cheese boards, which include our new season’s Castlefarm Shamrock.

And we’re also also working towards the New Year now, taking orders for next spring’s Angus beef. The cycle begins again.

This December the Farm Shop is open:

11am-4pm Wednesday 19th December
11am-4pm Thursday 20th December
11am-4pm Friday 21stth December
11am-4pm Saturday 22nd December
11am-4pm Sunday 23rd December
10am-12pm Monday 24th (Christmas Eve) December

If you would like to order a Christmas cheese board, Christmas food hamper or even an organic turkey please contact me. This Christmas I am also selling organic Angus beef box vouchers for the New Year. A mini beef box costs €50, a family beef box €90 and a big beef box, which is about one tenth of the animal, costs approximately €150.

To receive our newsletter and news of new products by email please contact Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone 087 678 5269

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